The place for all things American Idol. Info, snark and real opinions.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Finale Part 2: Season 14 Winner Crowned

Welcome back. The American Idol champion will either be Clark Beckham or Nick Fradiani. Tonight there will be a lot of performances, a lot of video packages and not a ton of results until the last minute of the show, so we will try our best to make the recap as concise as possible. From the reviews online, the seemingly incredibly reaction in the audience, and general judge's feedback and support it would seem that Nick won the show. But anything can happen, Clark could win also, it wasn't 100% clear cut, so we will have to wait and see.

Before we get to the Finale recap we want to recognize the Top 12 contestants and Season 14 of American Idol in general. With next season being the last we don't know what time we will have to do this kind of Season Review, but we at least wanted to bring it to you this year. Hope you enjoy. If you rather just read the Finale recap then feel free to scroll down the page, but we do hope everyone checks it out:

Season 14 Review

Season 14 Awards & Superlatives

Best Performance

Jax (I Want To Hold Your Hand-Audition)

This set the bar for this season. Her audition was a little preview of what we were going to get this season, in terms of talent, creativity and importance on song choice for all the contestants.

Most Resilient Award

Rayvon Owen

Due to the advent a.k.a. taking the idea from The Voice, the Fan Twitter Save was put into place this season. Due to Rayvon's ability to really step up at the right moment he was able to win the Twitter Save 4 times despite being in the bottom 4 weeks in a row. He went from possibly being in 9th place to standing on his own feet and outlasting Tyanna to achieve 4th place.

Most Messed Up Award

Maddie Walker versus Rachel Hallack- Top 48 Week

Basically Maddie was told she was eliminated, but then after she leaves the judges "spontaneously" decide to bring her back to do a "Sing-Off"
between her and Rachel Hallack. They said that they
felt it was always close call between Maddie and Rachel and as soon as
they eliminated Maddie they rethought their decision.Ultimately,they saved Maddie and eliminated Rachel. To bring Maddie up, tell her she was
eliminated, then to bring Rachel up and tell her she would have made it
if they didn't feel a twinge or something came over them when they
eliminated Maddie, and then to make them do a Sing-Off, that really
didn't make either of them stand out over the other, and then pick
Maddie over Rachel was so messed up.

Most Awkward Moment

Quentin versus Harry Connick Jr

This was a case of misinterpretation versus ill timed emotion. Quentin was upset that his best friend, Joey, was in the Bottom 2, with his other friend Rayvon. But when he said that it was "whack", Harry Connick Jr misinterpreted this to mean that Quentin thought the whole show was whack and told him he could leave at any point. Then Quentin ran up to the judge's table and stood really close to Harry and told him that he was just upset at his friends leaving, not anything bad about the show. No matter how you slice it, or interpret it, that was super awkward.

Most Shocking EliminationJoeyShe had been riding high for awhile. She did stumble the week prior to her elimination, but she brought creativity and there was a uniqueness to her voice that hadn't been heard on the stage before and sicne. She might not have been everyone's favorite, but you at least have to give her credit for trying different things and seeing if they worked.

Runner Up: Jax

In Top 3 Week she was outstanding on 2 out of her final 3 performances but it was the third performance that was her weakest, and given how close the voting has been, the memory of the last performance might have stayed in people's minds rather than her first two. We'll never know if it was her last song that did her in, but it didn't help and she came up just short of making the finale.

Least Shocking Elimination

DanielHe had been pretty awful for awhile, and it took until Top 9 for him to be eliminated. He was Rayvon's first victim in the Twitter-Save. Rayvon out-sung and outlasted him and Daniel, deservedly went home.

Our Top 12 Contestant Season Recap

These are our picks for each contestant's best performance and the average grade they received from us during the season.

Performance #1= Clark and Nick Perform with Fallout Boy. They sing "Centuries", well the lead singer Patrick Stump really sings the main parts and Clark and Nick sing a bit. I love this song, but it doesn't really highlight Nick or Clark that well.

Performance #2=Tyanna Jones performs with The Jacksons. It's 3 of the original Jacksons. They sing a medly of "I Want You Back", "ABC", "Love You Save", and "Shake Your Body To The Ground". They are obviously missing a big part of the Jacksons but it was alright. Comparing Tyanna to Michael Jackson isn't a fair comparison but they tried.

Performance #3=The Top 12 ladies perform with Sister Sledge. They sing their classics "We Are Family" and "Le Freak". It was nice to see Sarina-Joi, and reminds me that I really am still upset that she was eliminated so early, same with Adanna Duru. There were a lot of strong, creative contestants that were in this season. Maddie, Jax, Joey and Tyanna were all sounding great. Then they say sang Sister Sledge's new song "I'll Be There". It wasn't as fun as the hits, but it was quickly over and they went into "Good Times" and then did Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper Delight". That was a weird end, but I overall I enjoyed this performance.

Perfomance #4= Ricky Martin then performs. He first came out to perform his new song "Mr. Put It Down". He looks really good. He hasn't aged in 20 years, it's really insane actually. Then he performed "Livin La Vida Loca" with Quentin and Qaasim. Not sure if this would have been either Qaasim or Quentin's ideal song to sing, especially Quentin, who is a more moody, emotional kind of singer. But there ya go. Ricky and then the rest of the boys come out to dance. Then Nick, Clark and Rayvon sing a new remixed rock version of "She Bangs". It was cool and sultry. Then all of the guys and Ricky sing "The Cup of Life" and it's a pretty rocking song. Very high energy.

Performance #5=Janelle Monae comes out to sing her new song "Yoga" with Adanna Duru. While she sings the song "Yoga" her backup singers perform some yoga positions and dance around. It's a catchy song, I didn't really get it for the first minute, and although it's no "Hey Jude" or "Hotel California" it's not bad. Adanna really comes on late to the performance and is just part of the backup ladies, she doesn't stand out at all.

Performance #6=Prince Royce sings his song "Back It Up" and it features Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull. It was alright, nothing too special, but it got Jennifer Lopez involved and it seemed to get the audience dancing, so there ya go.

Performance #7= Echosmith performs their hit song "Cool Kids" with Joey Cook. It was in Joey's lane, very chill, very cool. It was a good match of song and style for Joey. The band and Joey seemed to have fun up there and sounded well together.

Performance #8=Keith Urban performs his song "Even The Stars Fall 4 U". Sometimes you forget that these judges are actually really big stars and have big hits, either currently or in the past. This was a nice song and has really lovely lyrics. I am taking a guess and thinking he wrote it for his wife, Nicole Kidman, but that's just a guess.

Performance #9= Jamie Foxx performs "In Love By Now" with Rayvon Owen. Remember when Jamie Foxx was in "Ray" and he won the Academy Award? Yea, now he just sings and does the National Anthem really terribly at boxing matches (Mayweather/Pacquio) and sings with American Idol contestants. This song does suit Rayvon well. Even better than Jamie Foxx, sorry but it's true.

Final 2's Mentors= Nick's mentor is Nick Abraham, his lead guitarist in his band. Pastor Jim Phillips is Clark's mentor and was his choir director in college. Both mentors get a brand new Ford Focus and so did Clark and Nick. That's nice.

Performance #10=New Kids on the Block performs with Daniel Seavey. They perform a medley of "Please Don't Go Girl" and "Step By Step". I think Daniel is still too young and needs his voice to develop a little. When you have his voice meshing with adult men, singing their classic songs, it really doesn't work. But he is still adorable. Then they sing "You've Got It (The Right Stuff)". For some reason it looks like Donnie Wahlberg is wearing a skirt on top of his pants, but hey, that's his personal preference, just not sure why. But it was fun to hear NKOTB perform their hits and try to include little Daniel Seavey.

Performance #11=Vance Joy sings his song "Riptide" with Quentin Alexander. This is more in Quentin's style, he even performed this song early on. It was beautiful and more mellow than some of the bigger, high energy performances so far tonight.

Performance #12=Pitbull and Chris Brown perform their song "Fun" with Qaasim Middleton. It was "Fun"....yep, I had to say it. It was actually just alright, nothing outstanding. Just another performance I'll probably forget about in 10 minutes.

Performance #13= Steven Tyler sans Aerosmith performs his new song "Love is Your Name". It's actually country-infused and very different than Aerosmith, but Steven's voice is still outstanding. The man is nearly 70 years old and still has one of the best voices in music. Incredible. I actually dug the song, and liked that it wasn't like his old songs, he is trying something different and it worked for me. Then Jax and he performed "Piece of My Heart" and they just blend so well together. Steven just rocks the hell out of this tune, if you missed it check it out on Youtube or something. Jax kills some of her lines as well. This is by far the best performance of the night. Steven Tyler is the ultimate performer. He even gets a little hug and kiss from Jennifer Lopez as a parting gift. Really well done all the way around for Steven Tyler tonight. And after the performance was over, out of the blue, Jax apologizes for not thanking the judges and the audience for her time on the show. Really mature and nice by Jax. It wasn't her fault that American Idol ushered her away like she wasn't actually on the show last night. She did great and was very appreciative of her chance to be on the show.

Performance #14=Michael McDonald and Clark Beckham perform "Takin it To The Streets" in a dueling or at least side by side piano performance. It sounds amazing, but it's not current if that's what you are looking for, but if you are looking to get that from Clark you haven't been paying attention this whole season.

Performance #15= Andy Grammer performs "Back Home" with Nick Fradiani. Nick performed this song last week after his hometown visit. I never heard this song before Nick sang it, and now I really enjoy it. Nick and Andy could be brothers, they have very similar looks and mannerisms. Then they sing Andy's other song "Honey I'm Good". If Nick decides to go this route with his career then he will be in fine shape. This is a great style and sound that Nick should try to emulate.

Performance #16= Judge's Perform. Jennifer, Harry and Keith perform together, just as they did at last year's finale. The first song that Jennifer sings, Keith plays on the guitar and Harry plays on the piano is "Diamonds". Jennifer sounds and looks beautiful on this version. Then they perform "Locked out of Heaven" and Keith takes lead at first with Jennifer accompaniment and Harry does some great piano work. It was pretty amazing. It was too bad we didn't hear Harry sing, but he can play the piano amazingly.

The time has finally come. The season began in January and it's been a long 4 months but it's time to crown the next American Idol.
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Winner of American Idol Season 14

Nick Fradiani

Final Thoughts

*Nick deserved the win. He had been getting better and better every week
and stepping it up. He was definitely one of the biggest underdogs of the
season but kept listening to the people helping him, kept growing and
ended up being one of the better performers on the show.

*Clark was a
great singer, but Nick was an all around great performer. I think if Clark finds the right lane and sticks to it then he might be able to do well on some charts. I have thought that his old school style was more like Taylor Hicks, but for his sake, I hope Clark has a little more success with his musical career. Obviously, no disrespect to the Season 5 champion.

*There were a ton of performances tonight, so many of them were not actually live, including the judges performances and many of the performances with the contestants. You could tell that it wasn't live when Ryan introduced the performances in the audience, and then the judges magically disappeared, then reappeared, wearing the same clothes they wore from the beginning and their hair didn't move at all. It is what it is, it's 2-hour show, they had to get it in under time, so not surprised that this happened. Just had to make note of it.

**Finally, I say it every year, but I'd like to Thank each and every person that has come to this
blog. Whether it be reading it one time, or reading every single recap, we appreciate
you reading our thoughts and our opinions about this (sometimes) crazy
show. It's a lot of time devoted to a TV show but we enjoy it, and are
glad that you do as well. Next season is it for American Idol and for our blog, so please come back, tell a friend, or a few friends and enjoy with us the last season of the show. We will be providing a lot of Idol history, recounting some memorable moments from the past 14 years and seeing if the last group of constants can do the show justice.

*Congrats to Nick Fradiani the new American Idol champion.

Please come on back here from time to time for some Idol news and
then we will return with our regularly scheduled blog in January of
2016. So until then, see ya!

2 comments:

Thank you for another entertaining season! This finale was disappointing in regards to the performers that were brought in to help celebrate but it was still OK. A couple of quick observations. What is the deal with Caleb, the winner from last season? I don't recall him being mentioned at all and usually they bring out prior winners but none this time (except when he walked himself on stage after Nick won). Also, I noticed that they totally removed the contestant duets (and trios) this season like they used to do in seasons past.

With the results being on the same night and the Judge's Save and then The Twitter-Save they just didn't have enough time to do group performances, duets, and trios. I for one enjoyed having the Results on the same night. But I didn't like how it was done. I think if they are only given one night again they should just have everyone perform and then the Bottom 3 will be revealed. So when the judge's vote or the audience votes to save the contestant they can see a contestant that wasn't sitting around all night not knowing if they were safe or in jeopardy. The delivery of the results provided weaker performances from those that weren't told they were safe right away. That's just one of many things that we will discuss before next season. Thanks for reading the recap!